HITCHENS ON PALIN

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity

This is Hitchens writing in Slate.

Sarah Palin is not sure about man-made climate change, would easily buy into the teaching of intelligent design along with science as a "healthy debate" and in her latest moment of glory denounced fruit fly research and also threw in a good measure of well-massaged xenophobia by noting that this research takes place in France. This is a woman who would not know a fruit fly from Spanish Fly, let alone the fact that the humble fruit fly is one of the most important organisms in modern biology, has led to a Nobel Prize and contributed some of the most profound insights in genetics and heredity used for fighting human disease.

The world really should have had enough of people spouting nonsense who don't know what the hell they are talking about, who celebrate ignorance as a "small-town" value and denounce learning, logical thinking, curiosity and knowledge of the world as elitist. The question on Nov 4 would be; do the American people actually think the same too? If not, they would get what they deserve.